Clinker Conundrum

And this is what "iron clinkers" look like.

These are just a sample of the many grate-jamming iron clinkers that are turning up in the load of nut coal I got this year.

Paul

The cooler stove is very easy to shake. Most all ash is fine powder. When I start to shake I cannot see any red from above. I can stop shaking without having any burning coal fall into ash pan. The hotter stove is not fine ash. I have to shake more carefully and longer. Some burning coals usually drop into the ash pan. What I was calling clinkers are sand colored formed pieces that easily break apart in my fingers. Anyway there is definitely a difference in the waste ending up in the ash pan from identical stoves burning identical fuel at different temperatures.

That's fairly normal CH. I don't know why it powders up on a slow burn, but what you're holding is what I normally have for ash. Clinkers tend to have more mass to them.

Here's 2 clinkers that my stoker boiler spit out. Boot for size reference.

Lee,
That right one would cover half the grates of my range.

I think you're in the lead for, " Clinker of the year."

Paul

Lightning wrote: ↑

Sat. Feb. 26, 2022 7:27 pm

Here's 2 clinkers that my stoker boiler spit out. Boot for size reference.

I used to throw my many clinkers outside a window on some lava rocks thinking I'd have a clinker garden some day but so far the last 2 years Ive only had 1. But that is a real clinker! I bet theres a song to be made about clinkers like that!

Clinker in the morning, clinker in the evening, clinker at supper time.

I ain't got no clinkers, my stoves burning fine. My coal is the best coal, Stove runs all the time.

Almost poetic C!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL

Upon further analysis and logical deduction I have formed the opinion that stove temperature is not the reason for the difference in my ash from two identical stoves burning identical fuel set at different temperatures. My new conclusion is this. A stove burning at a higher temperature needs tending more frequently than one burning at a lower temperature. The stove burning at a lower temperature gets tended only once per day in the evening probably pretty consistently at 24 hour intervals. The stove burning hotter gets tended twice daily probably around 12 hour intervals. My guess is the longer tend times allows the almost disintegrated clumps of ash to fall apart and become like dust. The more frequent tending doesn't allow enough time for that to happen. So it probably has nothing to do with heat and more to do with the frequency of shaking the stove. My guess would be that if I tended the hotter stove at let's say 16 hour intervals the ash pans would be the same.

ColdHouse wrote: ↑

Sat. Feb. 26, 2022 6:05 pm

What I was calling clinkers are sand colored formed pieces that easily break apart in my fingers.

What I'm seeing in the pictures of the above post are completely burned pieces of coal that haven't yet dissolved into dust/powder.. Clinkers (as most of us define them) form when said dust/powder is heated to the point of fusing together to form stone like objects.. These "objects" that we call clinkers can grow to massive sizes and take over the fuel bed under the right conditions.

Ashes to ashes dust to clinkers.

Great poetry guys! Now if Lightning can add some guitar to the words...

warminmn wrote: ↑

Sun. Feb. 27, 2022 12:04 pm

Great poetry guys! Now if Lightning can add some guitar to the words...

Hahaha! What a great idea